The Youth Violence Commission

Developing policy to address youth violence

THE COMMISSIONERS

The Youth Violence Commission was established with the recognition that tackling youth violence is the responsibility of all society. The commissioners are therefore comprised of MPs from across different political parties, in order to seek a genuine cross party consensus on solutions to address youth violence. The commissioners will be working alongside the commission’s academic and strategic partners to seek evidence based policy solutions, with the aim of ultimately getting each political party to sign up to the final report’s recommendations before the next General Election.

VICKY FOXCROFT

Vicky Foxcroft was elected to represented Lewisham Deptford in 2015. Prior to her election, Vicky served as a local councillor and worked as a trade unionist where she led campaigns against low pay, the exploitation of agency workers and the use of zero hour contracts.

Since being elected Vicky has strived to be a strong local voice for Lewisham Deptford in Parliament. Her focuses have been influenced by the issues encountered locally and by campaigns in the community. She currently serves as one of the Labour Opposition Whips.

Following the deaths of five young people from Lewisham Deptford, and the rise of knife crime in the area, Vicky arranged for a debate to take place in Parliament on youth violence. That debate called for the Youth Violence Commission to be established, which Vicky now Chairs.

JAMES CLEVERLY

James Spencer Cleverly, TD is a Conservative Party politician and Territorial Army officer. He currently serves as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Braintree, and was the member of the London Assembly for Bexley and Bromley from 2008-16. He won his seat in parliament at the 2015 general election.

CHRIS STEPHENS

Chris Stephens is a Scottish trade unionist and Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who is the current MP for the Glasgow South West constituency, elected at the 2015 general election.

NORMAN LAMB

Norman Lamb has been the Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk since 2001. After serving as a minister in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, he was appointed Minister of State for Care and Support at the Department of Health in September 2012 and served in this position until the end of the Coalition Government in May 2015. As Health Minister, Norman worked to reform the care system and led the drive to integrate health and social care, with a greater focus on preventing ill health. He also challenged the NHS to ensure that mental health was treated with the same priority as physical health, including the introduction of access and waiting standards in mental health for the first time. He was the Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson between 2015 and 2017, and was elected Chair of the Science & Technology Select Committee in July 2017.

OUR KEY ACADEMIC RESEARCHERS AND ADVISERS

The Commission is supported by a joint collaboration of academics from The Open University and Warwick Policy Lab of Warwick in London, which is part of the University of Warwick. Our academic partners have conducted a range of primary research to support the Commission’s work. This has included developing and conducting a national survey of young people to find out about their experiences and views of violence, supporting a series of expert evidence sessions in Portcullis House, and gathering evidence from meetings with senior personnel in the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit. In addition to gathering data through primary research, our academics have reviewed the most relevant and recent studies on the subject of serious youth violence, and authored our interim and final reports that present the Commission’s key findings and policy recommendations.

Professor Abhinay Muthoo

Abhinay Muthoo is a Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick. He is also the Dean of Warwick in London and the Co-Director of the Warwick Policy Lab. Prior to starting his current role as the Dean of Warwick in London in 2016, Abhinay was the Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick for 8 years.

Abhinay was educated at the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge. He has broad research interests and these include political economy, negotiations, and public policy. He has published papers in many top economics journals including in the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of Economic Theory and The Economic Journal. He is the author of Bargaining Theory with Applications, described as a publication that any economist should want to have as a reference.

Keir Irwin-Rogers

Keir Irwin-Rogers is a Lecturer in Criminology at the Open University. Prior to this, Keir spent 10 years with The University of Sheffield studying for a BA in History, an MA in International Criminology, an MA in Law, and a PhD in Criminal Justice. After completing his PhD, he spent two years designing, managing and conducting a range of research projects for the social business, Catch22. During this time, he became increasingly aware of the harms associated with the criminalisation of young people. His most recent research examines the harms caused by prohibitionist drug policies. Keir has also conducted research and published papers on the subjects of community sanctions, sentencing, deterrence and urban violence.

Gary Trowsdale

Advisor to the Commission

Gary was Managing Director of the Damilola Taylor Trust from 2009 to 2013. He also founded the Spirit of London Awards during this time and then created the One Big Community project to tackle the causes of youth violence in 2013. The project came to be known as 1bc and engaged hundreds of young people in solution workshops and debates. Gary has been actively involved in youth work for many years but has a background in Marketing which saw him win the ITV Marketing Society Great Britain ‘Marketer of the Year’ Award in 1993.

Former researchers and advisers

Siobhan Benita

Siobhan Benita is the former Chief Strategy Officer of Warwick in London (WiL) and Co-Director of the Warwick Policy Lab at the University of Warwick. Before starting her current role of Chief Strategy Officer in August 2016, Siobhan was the Chief Policy and Strategy Officer of the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick. Prior to that, Siobhan was a senior civil servant with over 15 years’ government experience working in many major departments including Transport, Environment, Health and Local Government as well as spending several years at the heart of Government with senior roles in the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury.

Siobhan resigned in January 2012 to run as an independent candidate in the Mayor of London election, where she secured around 250,000 votes which was a remarkable achievement for a previously unknown independent with no party machine. Siobhan also has broad experience of TV and radio commentary and speaks regularly on current issues, including public policy and gender equality.

Zoë Leadley-Meade

Zoë Leadley-Meade is a Lecturer in Education at London South Bank University. Zoë has a BA (Hons) in English Literature from The University of Roehampton, a PGCE in Secondary English Education from Goldsmiths University of London and an MA in Education from London South Bank University. Prior to joining LSBU in 2015, Zoë accumulated over seven years of experience as a teacher in inner city London secondary schools where she witnessed the power of education to address social inequalities and developed a passion for promoting inclusive education. Zoë has published work on inclusive education and her research interests include the potential of education as a tool for social justice.

Leroy Logan

Chair of the London Independent Youth Safety Advisory Board

Leroy Logan is a retired Police Superintendent who previously served for 30 years in the Metropolitan Police Service. Before retiring he was was part of the national police team that successfully co-ordinated the safety and security of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics across the UK, and in addition to this he contributed to the post Games Legacy security report for the Government.

Over the past 20 years Leroy has worked on educational and capacity building programmes for young people in response to the growing rate of knife and gun crime. This has led to him becoming Chair of the London Independent Youth Safety Advisory Board (LIYSAB) which works in partnership with the Cross Party Commission on Youth Violence.

Leroy has a BSC in Applied Biology from the University of East London. His achievements for his contributions to policing include an MBE and a Honorary PhD from the University East London.